John and Puffer Ponds, Puffer and Bullhead Mountains 10/16 - 10/18/2010 (Adirondacks)

[DSettahr]

Pictures Here

In all of my travels in the Adirondack Park, one place I'd never yet visited was the Puffer Pond area in the Siamese Ponds Wilderness. In fact, I'd spent hardly any time in the Siamese Ponds Wilderness apart from a few day hikes in the Kunjamuk River area, and climbing Crane Mountain when I was young. For a while now, I'd been contemplating combining a climb of Puffer Mountain, which I still needed for the Adirondack Hundred Highest, with an overnight visit to John and Puffer Ponds. This past weekend, I was finally able to undertake this trip.

I arrived at the John Pond trail head Saturday evening right at dusk. At first, I was dubious about driving down the last tenth of a mile on the single track dirt road through the woods to the proper parking area, but I gave it a shot and found that it wasn't bad. By keeping to the right, I was able to keep my wheels out of the ruts and get my Geo Metro back to the parking area without bottoming out.

After quickly packing the food I'd purchased on the drive, I set out through the darkness. The trail was quite easy to follow, even in the dark. It follows an old road all the way to John Pond. There was some evidence of illegal ATV use on the first section of the trail, but nothing recent. The trail was also a little wet in some spots, but these were few and far between. For the most part it was dry and was easy walking. According to the ADK Guidebook, this trail hasn't been closed to vehicular traffic for that long, and so it was still nice and wide and generally in good shape. As I made my way deeper into the woods, the moon also came out, illuminating the forest in a way that nicely complemented the light from my headlamp.

I wasn't expecting to find the side trail to the graves in the darkness, and was thinking that I'd have to look carefully for it on my hike out. The side trail, however, was well marked with a sign that couldn't easily be missed, and so I took a quick break and walked up the hill to check out the graves. I had been expecting a proper cemetery, but what I found instead was two graves, side by side within a simple wire fence, marked with two wooden crosses. Names and dates on the crosses indicated that the boy and the girl buried there had died when they were young, 11 and 14 respectively. A sign on a nearby tree told that they had died during the Black Diphtheria Epidemic of 1897.

Having been sufficiently creeped out by standing next to two graves in the middle of the woods alone at night, I soon found myself continuing on my way to John Pond. It wasn't long before I reached the junction where the crossover trail to puffer pond began. From here, the old road continued right to the lean-to on the south shore of John Pond.

I had a beautiful clear night to admire while I was getting ready to rest for the evening. To the northwest, the Big Dipper was arrayed perfectly over the cliffs and hills that line the ridge running north from John Pond to Clear Pond. I took some time to explore the area in the darkness, and discovered that the lean-to must be a new one (no graffitti older than '06). It appears to replace an older one that was closer to the shoreline. There is still a cement fireplace down by the shore, which is slowly becoming over grown again.

Sunday morning, I awoke to see sunshine on the cliffs across the pond. After shutting my eyes for what only seemed like "5 more minutes" (but was probably an hour), I opened them again to see that the sky was covered entirely in gray... so much for a nice sunny day! After a quick breakfast of Quaker Oatmeal Cookies, I packed my gear and headed south to Puffer Pond.

The crossover trail between John and Puffer Ponds is an interesting one. At first, it passes through a clearing that must've at one point been a homestead. At the far end of the clearing, I found two pieces of a crosscut saw lying in the grass. The trail then enters a Norway Spruce plantation, and crosses two streams in short order. The streams, while not difficult to ford, each had makeshift bridges. Both bridges were quite slippery, and it was pretty clear that it was only a matter of time before they broke beneath the combined weight of a hiker and their pack, so I elected not to use them after crossing the first.

Beyond the spruce plantation, the trail assumes a very wild character. This is yet another one of those Adirondack trails that, while fairly well marked, gets very little use, has no discernible tread and therefore was difficult to follow in spots. A very noticeable rock outcrop on the west side of the trail seems to mark the approximate halfway distance between John and Puffer Ponds. The trail doesn't go straight through the col between Bullhead and Chimney Mountains, but rather sticks to higher ground to the east. Just short of intersecting the King's Flow trail to Puffer Pond, I encountered a really neat hollowed out tree trunk that was still standing. The outsides still had bark (I think it was a Yellow Birch) but the insides had been charred from fire. Nearby, I saw multiple rotten stumps, and it was difficult to tell, but I think they all also bore evidence of the same forest fire that had swept up the inside of the trunk.

While the crossover trail had it's share of ups and downs, once I reached the King's Flow trail and took it south, the real climbing began... 250 feet in short order. Not too difficult, even with a full pack, but enough to get my blood flowing.

At Puffer Pond, I stopped briefly at the first lean-to, which is right where the trail comes down from the ridge and reaches the shore. As with the John Pond Lean-to, this lean-to is an obvious replacement of an older shelter that was also closer to the shoreline.

I planned, however, to stay in the other lean-to at Puffer Pond, as I had heard that the lean-to on the east shore was the nicer of the two. As I made my way east along the shore to the second shelter, I passed several (illegal) campsites. When I arrived to find that the eastern lean-to was right on the water, with strong winds whipping across the lake and even carrying some of the spray of the water into the lean-to, I elected instead to return to the first lean-to, which was much better sheltered. The east lean-to certainly does have an excellent view of the lake, but it is not sheltered at all from the prevailing winds. It's my understanding that this lean-to is due to be dismantled sometime in the near future, however, and will not be replaced.

After unpacking and setting up camp in the lean-to, and a quick lunch of flat bread, humice, cheese, and pepperoni, I packed a day pack and set off to climb Puffer Mountain to work towards completing the hundred highest. I chose the standard route of crossing Puffer Pond Outlet just below the pond, and taking a bearing almost due south straight up the mountain. The trail down to the outlet was pretty overgrown in spots, and hard to follow- although I don't think this is a designated trail, but rather is more of a herd path that gets a fair amount of use. As I made my way to the outlet, the sun started to peak out here and there through gaps in the clouds, and as the day progressed, was visible more and more often.

Continued...

 

[DSettahr]

I quickly rounded the outlet of the pond, crossed the stream, and started making my way uphill. While I wouldn't label the forest as being "open" like Spencer does in his guidebook, it certainly wasn't a push through dense woods either. I did encounter plenty of Witchhobble and Beech, both pulling and grabbing at my as I passed by. The lower slopes also had some picturesque streams that I crossed as I ascended. Farther up, I ran into some open glades, filled with ferns which were beginning to die off. Unfortunately, the ferns in many of these glades hid piles of cobbles and rocks, and required some careful stepping to ascend through without twisting an ankle.

The mountain was fairly steep, but not unbearably slow. At a few spots, I did start to zig-zag back and forth across the topography to lessen the strain of the ascent. At one point, I turned around and found myself with a decent view through the trees of Puffer Pond and Bullhead Mountain. In fact, I was readily able to see Bullhead Mountain during most of the ascent, which allowed me to roughly gauge my elevation and how far I had to go.

Higher up, I started to run into some of the ledges others have encountered, as well as a shift from a deciduous forest to a coniferous one, with plenty of spruce and fir. While some of the ledges were unscalable, finding ways around them wasn't difficult. I soon realized, however, that with each ledge, I was unconsciously making the decision to track right to the west to find a route around. This proved to be a mistake, as not far from the summit I found myself in some of the densest tangle of blowdown and spruce and fir underbrush I have ever had the pleasure of hiking through. Going was slow here, but before long I was standing on the summit (right above a small tiny patch of snow about 2 inches across, the only snow I saw all weekend!). I was rewarded for my efforts with absolutely no views.

On the descent, I decided to try taking a northeasterly bearing at first, and then descending straight down the mountain. This proved to be a lucky choice. While the mountain was still steep, and the understory was also quite thick in spots, I only encountered two small ledges (easy enough to jump down) and virtually no blowdown. Definitely a much better route to the summit.

The descent was quite quick, and I soon found myself back at the lean-to. The overall round trip time from the lean-to and back was only 2 hours and 45 minutes. Definitely a rugged mountain in spots, but the shortness of the bushwhack prevents it from being too difficult a hike.

That night, as I sat outside the lean-to next to a roaring fire and waiting for dinner to cook, while enjoying the prospect of having one less of the hundred highest mountains to still do, I started to leaf through Spencer's guide book. To my surprise, I noticed that Bullhead Mountain, the very same mountain that I had been using that day to gauge my elevation on Puffer Mountain, was on the list as an alternate in place of Dun Brook, which is posted against hiking. To date, I had overlooked this mountain, and I think mainly it was because I had been using the Plinth, Quoin, and Cornice Associates maps to plan much of my hundred highest hikes. Because Bullhead isn't a true hundred highest peak (at least not by the original surveys) it's not listed on these maps as being one. However, as number #102, it was selected as an alternate when one was needed.

"Well," I said to myself, "I guess I've got one more mountain to climb tomorrow morning before I head back to the car."

And so, on a partially sunny Monday morning, rather than packing up and heading straight back to the car as I had originally planned, I instead packed a day pack and headed up the trail to the height of land just north of Puffer Pond. Here, I turned east, and began ascending the ridge up to the summit of Bullhead Mountain. Again, I would not agree with Spencer's description of the forest as "open," but it wasn't dense either. Apart from that similarity, however, the lower and middle slopes were quite different than those of Puffer Mountain. I encountered numerous open glades, but these lacked the hidden ankle twisting cobbles of the previous mountain, and some even had exposed bedrock. The ascent was also much more gradual than it had been on Puffer Mountain the previous day. I never saw any sign of the lookouts with views that Spencer mentions as being along the north side of this ridge.

On the upper slopes, where the forest started to turn coniferous, I started to encounter blowdown, but still it seemed luck was with me. Wherever the blowdown was worst, it seemed as if the understory was significantly less dense, which made finding a path around the blowdown all that much more easy. Like I had done with this mountain the day before, I was able to use Puffer Mountain in the distance behind me to gauge my elevation.

During the last approach to the summit, however, my luck ran out. No ledges this time, but still for some reason I ended up tracking right (to the south) and found myself in yet another tangle of blowdown and undergrowth. To top things off, the partially sunny day decided to throw a quick shower of sleet into the mix.

With determination, however, I was soon on the summit. Gaps here and there in the trees, along with some open gaps in the clouds bringing about an end to the sleet and the return of the sun gave me some nice views of the surrounding mountains and lakes. Not an extraordinary view, but better than what I had been able to see on Puffer Mountain for sure.

Again, on the descent I tried a slightly different route. I first tracked northwest, and then started to cut back over to the west and the ridgeline I'd ascended. And again, my luck seemed better on the descent. I did encounter some very thick undergrowth, and some blowdown that was difficult to navigate around, but nothing compared to what I'd seen on my ascent. I also found one surprise- a bunch of deflated balloons. This is probably about the 8th or 9th time I've found the remains of runaway balloons in the woods while bushwhacking, and it's enough to make me swear off helium balloons for the rest of my life. Runaway balloons don't go to heaven, instead, they litter the woods!

After the descent, I checked my watch again as the lean-to came back into site. It had taken me almost exactly 3 hours round trip to climb and descend Bullhead. Another easy bushwack except for the tricky patches of blowdown and dense forest near the summit. As I sat down to eat lunch, a day hiker passed by, the only other person I'd seen so far in the woods.

Soon, with lunch out of the way and all my gear packed up, I was headed north again on the crossover trail back to my car. It seemed as though I was having even more trouble following the trail in this direction. A few times, I had to stop and carefully survey the terrain to find the correct route. Again, the trail is in pretty good shape, not overgrown and with a minimum of blowdown, and it simply does not get traveled often enough to make it easy to follow.

Once I reached the old road again, the walk back to the car was uneventful. There were 2 trucks parked in the parking area, and a 3rd one down in the snowplow turn around, but I'd not seen any of their occupants in the woods. They must've all either been hunting off trail, or at John Pond, which I did not return to.

All in all, a productive weekend. I got two more hundred highest under my belt (and I'd set out with the intention of only climbing one!), and added two lean-tos to my list of stayed in lean-tos. The Puffer Pond lean-to was lean-to #90 for me; I'm closing in on #100!

 

[Peakbagr]

Couple of thoughts relating your interesting and detailed TR. In the almost 6years since the hike that Spencer's peak chapter was based on, the woods have likely changed. Blowdown, trees growing, storms, etc. And the old bushwhacker's adage that 50' left or right makes a 'whack completely different probably applies as I'm sure you've experienced.
Keep those good trip reports coming.